Wheels have been fabricated from several materials by various methods, including, for example, steel utilizing a stamping process or an alloy using a casting process. Steel wheels are typically thought of as offering high strength characteristics. However, a negative characteristic of the use of steel is its associated weight. To reduce this weight (the undesirable characteristic) considerable attention has been given to cast metal alloy structures which offer the advantage of being much lighter in weight than their stamped steel counterparts, but often more expensive. Filamentary reinforced plastic structures have recently been given attention because of their corrosion resistance and the possibility of lower cost and reduced weight. Further, high strength characteristics may be achieved if a continuous filament is utilized in the wheel structure.
U.S. Letters Pat. No. 3,917,352, by S. D. Gageby, dated Nov. 4, 1975, entitled Continuous-Strand, Fiber Reinforced Plastic Wheel, discloses a wheel having a hub portion and rim portions formed integrally with the hub portion by a continuous filament running from one rim over the hub to the opposite rim. This method of continuously winding the whole wheel tends to accumulate an excessive amount of filament at the center of the hub leading to increased weight.
U.S. Letters Pat. No. 4,527,839, by N. Fujitaka, et al., dated July 9, 1985, entitled Synthetic Wheel Formed From Two Halves, discloses a two piece wheel having a plurality of spokes connected to a central hub. The wheel body is made of a fiber-reinforced resin. However, since the fiber used by Fujitaka is random, the wheel cannot offer the same high strength characteristics as the continuous filament structure of the invention disclosed herein.